Signature collection campaign: Let’s save live music in Ibiza!

The Associació de Músics d’Eivissa is organizing a campaign to collect signatures which will be one of the first measures taken by the organization “as a response to the persecution made by several public institutions towards the establishments that organize live music events,” as it was explained by their president, Danilo Martínez.

As Danilo explains to Ayudaenibiza.com, “there are several establishments in Ibiza island that had been forced to stop organizing live concerts due to constant fines, seals and several persecutions on behalf of the municipalities, which have deprived the musicians of having a place where to present their art. They have deprived professional musicians of having a job, and depriving the public of enjoying their music”.

With this campaign, we want to prove the municipalities and to Consell d’Eivissa y Govern de les Illes that live music events have a lot of support among the people,” says Danilo.

The association is also asking for a legal framework to bring legal security to the musicians, as well as to the establishments who organize these activities, always within respectful parameters towards the neighbours, and coming to an agreement about reasonable ending hours. On the other hand, the Associació de Músics d’Eivissa wants to establish a concept of live music as a cultural and dynamic activity, as well as a touristic attraction which will appeal to a quality audience.

Let’s save live music in Ibiza! How can I collaborate?

The association itself has explained that there are several ways of cooperating:

The first one would be to go to one of the signature collection spots, which you can find on their Facebook page. Also, you can also collaborate signing here at Change.org

The second one would be to write an email toinfo@musicseivissa.com asking for a printable form. The campaign will go on until June 30 and the association will continue to inform about the establishments in each municipality where you can leave the filled out forms.

Once they have finished with the signature recollection, they will proceed to present the signed sheets to the Consell Insular d’Eivissa, asking that the live music events issue would be discussed at Consell d’Alcaldes, something that the President Vicent Torres Guasch has already agreed to on a meeting which took place on May 9.

Allegations against the new normative of Sant Josep’s Municipality

The association is also working towards presenting allegations against Sant Josep’s Municipality, which is trying to forbid any kind of open-air live music activity, “attempting against our art, which takes place mostly outside, due to a lack of appropriate establishments,” as it is explained by the president of the association.

To sum up, the Association of Musicians of Ibiza considers that the lack of legal security affects small establishments hiring local musicians, as well as medium-size and big venues who wish to bring international artists. They also consider that “the current situation is leading to a dangerous public monopoly over music, due to the fact that public institutions can schedule events as they see fit, while as they ban and hunt the private entrepreneurs who attempt to do it.”.

What are the requirements to organize a concert in Ibiza?

The opinion of the association is that “it is very difficult, or practically impossible to legally schedule a music event.

The current legislation does not foresee open-air live music events, aside from the “licenses of not recurring activity,” which can only be solicited on a one-time-only basis, blocking the possibility of having a weekly schedule. Taking into account that 90% of live events on the island take place in open-air venues, it is clear that the normative and the reality are going in different directions,” as explained by members of the association.

As for the music inside of public establishments, the law requires a license of concert-café, which the association consider as “prohibitive due to the overhauls that must be taken in order to achieve it (a soundproofing system, a double door, etc.), and in Sant Josep’s case they also require soundproofing to a ridiculous level (65db), which can be reached by a simple conversation. This is completely incompatible with live music and they have led many establishments to simply stop scheduling live music events due to the bans or fines”.

About the Associació de Músics dÉivissa

The Association of Musician of Ibiza was created after a conference at the bar Can Jordi (Sant Josep), with the assistance of over 60-70 musicians from 35 music groups of several music styles. It currently represents over 350 musicians of Ibiza Island.

The main objective of the organization is to accomplish thatany establishment can offer live music, regardless of the license they hold or the activities they carry out, always taking into consideration respectful parameters towards the neighbours. They also wish to defend the rights of the musicians and of the bars and establishments that schedule live music events.

Currently the association is going through a round of meetings with the mayors of the island and with all the politic parties in order to get first-hand accounts of the vision of others in respect to their activity, present their inquiries and come to an agreement to find a normative frame to promote musical culture in the form of concerts.